Not a good week for cruise ships... it appears there are no injuries in this case. But can you imagine having to stay out on the open deck? Probably no hot meals or cold drinks. Reminds me of the Costa Allegra, when they had an engine fire. They were way out in the Seychelles, and it took longer to get them to port. Fortunately, it looks like the Carnival Triumph should be in port soon.http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=12792.msg1511630#msg1511630

GALVESTON, Texas — A fire on a cruise ship has caused the vessel to operate on emergency generator power.Officials say the ship Carnival Triumph experienced an engine room fire Sunday morning while the vessel was sailing approximately 150 miles off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.There are 3,143 guests and 1,086 crew members on board the four-day cruise that departed Galveston on Thursday.The ship’s automatic fire extinguishing systems activated and the fire was contained to the aft engine room, according to Carnival.Carnival Triumph is currently without propulsion and the ship is operating on emergency generator power. The ship’s technical crew is continuing to assess the damage and attempting to restore power.Officials said that a tugboat is en route to the ship’s location and will tow the vessel to Progreso, Mexico, which is the closest port to the ship’s current location, which will allow guests to disembark and get them home as quickly as possible. The ship is expected to arrive in Progreso Wednesday afternoon.There were no casualties or injuries to guests or crew.All guests have been asked to remain in the ship’s public areas and open decks.Another ship, the Carnival Elation, is currently on scene and transferring additional food and beverage provisions to the Carnival Triumph, officials said.Carnival says all guests on the current voyage will receive a full refund inclusive of gratuities and any transportation expenses. ::snipping2::

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/fire-carnival-cruise-ship-strands-4-200-article-1.1261258Foul conditions aboard stranded Carnival cruise ship Triumph: Passengers describe 'sewage running down the walls' and people acting like 'savages'Since a fire broke out in an engine room Sunday morning, the Carnival Triumph has been drifting off the coast of Mexico. A total of 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew have been forced to make do with cold food, no hot water, sweltering indoor temperatures, and few working toilets. A tow boat is expected Thursday, after an initial plan to tow the ship to a port in Mexico was scrapped.Published February 11, 2013, Updated February 12, 2013

::snipping2::Desperate passengers stranded aboard the Carnival Triumph in the Gulf of Mexico are describing foul conditions — including "sewage running down the walls and floors" — and fear the situation will only deteriorate before a tow boat finally arrives Thursday.

"Conditions are getting worse by the hour," passenger Debra Rightmire texted to ABC News. "Cabin carpets are wet with urine and water. Toilets are overflowing inside cabins. We are having to sleep in the hallways."

Another passenger said some people are sleeping in tents on the deck because of a pungent smell caused by the lack of proper refrigeration.

"We stood in line for four hours to get a hamburger," Shelly Crosby texted to ABC News.

A fire in the Triumph’s engine room Sunday morning crippled the enormous ship 150 miles off the coast of Mexico, leaving 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew members on board with limited power. No one was injured.

The ship set sail from Galveston, Texas, on Feb. 7 and was due to return from Mexico on Feb. 11. After the fire, officials planned to have the boat towed to a port in Mexico on Wednesday, but said Monday night that strong currents sent the vessel adrift 90 miles. Carnival now hopes to have the ship towed to Mobile, Ala., on Thursday.

Brent Nutt, whose wife, Bethany, is on board, spoke to CNN Sunday night about conditions on the Triumph, which is relying on backup power generators.

"She was crying ... and she just wants off of the ship," Nutt said. "I mean, it's horrible. There's no running water. There's no power. They are having to use the restroom in buckets and bags."

"It's like a bunch of savages on there," he added. "If you get on the blogs, they're saying that people are fighting over food and stuff."

Toby Barlow told CNN that his wife, Ann, a passenger on the ship, texted that the plumbing failed and people were defecating in bags and urinating in showers. More...

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

The operators of a cruise vessel stranded in the Gulf of Mexico after a weekend engine fire said Monday evening that the craft had drifted so far north of its original position that they now will tow the ship to Mobile, Alabama, instead of their original plan for Progreso, Mexico.

Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill said in a statement that strong currents caused the vessel, the Carnival Triumph, to drift about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of its original position off the Yucatan Peninsula.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

Feces, water reported on floor of disabled Carnival cruise ship in Gulf of MexicoPublished February 12, 2013

<snipped>

"There's water and feces all over the floor," said Brent Nutt, who was told about the conditions by his wife who is a passenger on board. "It's not the best conditions. You would think Carnival would have something in place to get these people off the ship."

Passengers also are getting sick and throwing up, he said, adding that his wife told him: "The whole boat stinks extremely bad."

To be sure, passengers aboard a cruise vessel stranded in the Gulf of Mexico have limited access to bathrooms, food and hot coffee, and were just given a new destination: Mobile, Ala.

Carnival Cruise Lines President and CEO Gerry Cahill said in a statement Monday that the Carnival Triumph had drifted so far north of its original position that it will be towed to the southern U.S. port, instead of the original plan to take it to Progreso, Mexico.

Cahill said strong Gulf currents caused the Triumph to drift about 90 miles north of its original position off the Yucatan Peninsula.

Cahill's statement said the ship should arrive in Mobile on Thursday and that the change will allow for less complicated re-entry for passengers without passports.

The ship, which left Galveston, Texas, on Thursday and was scheduled to return there Monday, will instead be towed to Mobile with its 3,143 passengers 1,086 crew members. They are due to arrive in Alabama on Thursday.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

The head of Carnival Cruise Lines said the British-U.S.-owned company was working hard to ensure the thousands of passengers stranded on the disabled ship were as comfortable as possible while the vessel was being towed to a port in Alabama.

"I need to apologize to our guests and to our families that have been affected by a very difficult situation," Carnival Cruise Lines president and CEO Gerry Cahill said at a news conference Tuesday evening. ::snipping2::U.S. Coast Guard officials say the passengers are safe, if somewhat uncomfortable.

But the destruction aboard the ship, the compensation to passengers, the costs of returning them home, the towing and other expenses could hurt the Doral, Fla.-based cruising colossus, at least temporarily.

"The financial cost to Carnival is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars, some estimates as high as $80 million," ABC News travel and lifestyle editor Genevieve Shaw Brown said. "It remains to be seen how badly this will hurt their brand."

If all goes as scheduled and tugboats nudge the ship into port in Mobile Thursday, Alabama Cruise Terminal general manager Sheila Gurganus said, the disembarking passengers will be met by a medical triage center and extra security in case they need it.

The cruise line said it has been busily making arrangements for the ship's passengers when they reach the shore.

More than 1,500 hotel rooms have been reserved in Mobile and New Orleans and more than 20 chartered flights have been booked to fly passengers back to Houston Friday after they have had a chance to rest, Cahill said. For those wishing to get home sooner, the company is organizing charter buses to Houston and Galveston.

The Carnival Triumph departed Galveston last Thursday with 3,143 guests and 1,086 crew on board for a Mexican cruise, which was due to return Monday. ::snipping2::

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

::snipping2::The National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that it has opened an investigation into the cause of the fire. The NTSB said the Bahamas Maritime Agency will lead the investigation because the ship carries a Bahamian flag.The Carnival Triumph was left dead in the water early Sunday after a fire in an engine room.

Although the blaze was contained, Carnival said, it knocked out the power that runs air conditioning, elevators and toilets in passenger areas and kitchen equipment used to prepare hot meals.The vessel's freshwater system was knocked down until Monday, Carnival said, when toilets in some areas of the ship were working again. Enough power was restored to allow for some hot food at a buffet.

Still, conditions have remained difficult, with passengers relaying stories of long lines for meals and people sleeping on open decks.

It emerged Tuesday that the ship had been listing about 4.5 degrees on Monday, which Carnival attributed to strong winds.

Carnival spokesman Vance Gulliksen said the list diminished to about 2 degrees Tuesday after tugboats began towing the vessel. The listing poses no safety risk, Carnival said.

The cruise line evaluated options and decided the safest alternative was to tow the ship back to port, Gulliksen said.

Because Carnival ships tend to sail full, there may have been no space to accommodate passengers on other ships, retired cruise line executive Art Sbarsky said. ::snipping2::The Carnival Triumph fire is just the latest in a string of serious incidents involving cruise ships.

The most serious was the capsizing of the Costa Concordia in January 2012 in Italy that left 32 passengers dead.

Video at Link

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

Some 4,000 people aboard a crippled cruise ship some have likened to a floating toilet were hoping to reach dry land and an end to their hellish voyage by tomorrow afternoon.

The Carnival Triumph disabled Feb. 10 when an engine room fire left it adrift off the coast of Mexico was being towed by tugboats toward a berth in Mobile, Ala. by Thursday. Passengers and crew have described a nightmarish scene of overflowing toilets, spoiled food and filthy hot conditions aboard the 893–foot vessel.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

Disabled Carnival cruise ship faces new delay in getting to port as towline snaps on one of the tugboats dragging it to shoreThursday, February 14, 2013, 2:52 PM

A broken towline has left a crippled Carnival Cruise Line dead in the water Thursday – just hours after it began slowly limping toward the Alabama shore.

One of the towlines from the four tugboats pushing the 900-foot cruise ship snapped, Carnival told the Daily News.

That left frustrated passengers – trapped for several days on the luxury liner without fresh food or clean bathrooms – once again at the mercy of the Gulf of Mexico waters.

The ship was scheduled to land in Mobile, Ala., midday Thursday, but a stiff headwind had pushed its arrival time back to anywhere between 8 and 11 p.m. central time, a Carnival spokesman said.

It’s not clear how long the broken towline will further delay the ship’s arrival.

The vessel has been without propulsion since a fire broke out in the engine room Feb. 10, three days after the Cozumel-bound ship left Galveston, Tex., with 3,143 guests and 1,086 staffers aboard. It was supposed to return to the small port city outside Houston on Feb. 11.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

The disabled ship entered Mobile Bay about 4 p.m. Central time Thursday, but is still about 30 miles from the cruise terminal in Mobile.

The cruise was initially supposed to arrive sometime Thursday afternoon, but the company later pushed the expected time to sometime between 8 and 11 p.m. The latest problem is a broken towline that is creating a new delay, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

A Carnival spokesman said the towing of the ship was taking longer than anticipated. Further, the spokesman said there is only one working elevator on the ship, which will complicate getting people on shore once they dock.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

The Carnival Triumph, a cruise ship passengers compared to a shanty town due to reports of vile conditions onboard, limped into a in Mobile, Ala., port Thursday, four days after the ship lost power due to a fire in its engine room.

Pulled by a tugboat at a maddeningly slow pace, the ship was finally arriving in the port at about 9:15 p.m. Central time Thursday after taking about six grueling hours to be towed from the mouth of Mobile Bay some 30 miles to the port.

Anxious passengers were lining the decks waving, cheering loudly and whistling to those on shore, but had hours to wait before they can walk on solid ground.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

Passengers who finally escaped the disabled Carnival cruise ship Triumph were on the move early Friday, some checked into the comfort of hotels, others on buses or headed to charter flights home after five numbing days at sea on a ship paralyzed by an engine-room fire.

The vacation ship carrying some 4,200 people docked late Thursday in Mobile to raucous cheers from passengers weary of overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.

"Sweet Home Alabama!" read one of the homemade signs passengers affixed alongside the 14-story ship as many celebrated at deck rails lining several levels of the stricken ship. The ship's horn loudly blasted several times as four tugboats pulled the crippled ship to shore at about 9:15 p.m. CST. Some gave a thumbs-up sign and flashes from cameras and cellphones lit the night.

Loving Natalee - Beth HollowayPage 219: I have to make difficult choices every day. I have to make a conscious decision every morning when I wake up not to be bitter, not to live in resentment and let anger control me. It's not easy. I ask God to help me._____

“A person of integrity expects to be believed and when he’s not, he let’s time prove him right.” -unknown

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) -- Passengers of the Carnival Triumph tried to put the memories of their nightmarish cruise behind them Friday, boarding buses and planes for home after five harrowing days aboard a vessel adrift at sea without power or working toilets.

Many of the roughly 3,000 passengers were bused to New Orleans to catch a flight home or to the ship's home port in Galveston, Texas. And as if they hadn't suffered enough, one of the buses broke down during the two-hour ride to New Orleans. Passengers on a different bus reported losing their luggage.

"I'm very frustrated that now our luggage is gone and missing," said Deborah Day of Plano, Texas, adding that she had made sure to check through every transfer point herself, only to lose it when she trusted Carnival to put it on a separate truck instead of the bus she was riding on.But she had kind words for the crew aboard the disabled ship, adding, "Those people were incredible."

Other passengers were taking things more in stride as they got closer to home. ::snipping2::The cleanup seemed daunting. Passengers described water-logged carpet, sewage seeping through the walls, overflowing toilets and a stench so bad people choked when they tried to endure it.

But by most accounts, the crew did as much as they could, using disinfectant and picking up plastic bags of excrement after toilets stopped working.

Six investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were in Mobile to look into the cause of the engine-room fire, which happened some 150 miles off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency was working with the Coast Guard and the Bahamas Maritime Authority, which will serve as the primary investigative agency.

The Bahamian government is taking the lead in the investigation because the Triumph is a Bahamian-flagged vessel and it was in international waters at the time of the incident, Holloway said.

The NTSB will be studying the mechanics of the ship "just like we would in any investigation, trying to determine what caused the fire, where the breakdown was," Holloway said. The investigation could also look at the ship's emergency procedures for passengers, he said.

Passengers described a horrifying scene after the fire. Some said they smelled smoke and received conflicting instructions about every 15 minutes over the PA system. Others ran for lifeboats.

No one was hurt in the fire, and just two people were taken off the ship for medical conditions as a precaution.More...

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

MOBILE, Ala. -- The first lawsuit was filed Friday by one of thousands of passengers trapped aboard a Carnival cruise ship adrift in the Gulf of Mexico for the past five days.

After disembarking in Mobile early Friday, Cassie Terry, 25, of Lake Jackson, Texas, hired attorneys Wayne Collins and Brent Allison in the Houston area, who filed the lawsuit in federal court in Miami.

The suit charges Carnival with failing to provide a seaworthy ship and sanitary conditions, describing the ship as "a floating toilet, a floating petri dish, a floating hell."More...

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

MIAMI -- A byzantine maze of maritime rules and regulations, fragmented oversight and a patchwork quilt of nations that do business with cruise lines make it tough for consumers to assess the health and safety record of the ship they're about to board in what for many is the vacation of a lifetime.Want to know about a ship's track record for being clean? Want to assess how sanitary the food is? It's not that easy to find, in part because there's no one entity or country that oversees or regulates the industry with its fleet of ships that are like mini cities floating at sea.In the case of Carnival Cruise Lines, the owner of the Carnival Triumph that spent days in the Gulf of Mexico disabled after an engine fire, the company is incorporated in Panama, its offices are based in Miami and its ships fly under the Bahamian flag - a matrix that is not unusual in the cruise line industry.For potential passengers seeking ship information, there's no central database that can be viewed to determine a track record of safety or health inspections. No one agency regulates everything from the cruise line's mechanical worthiness to the sanitation of its kitchens. ::snipping2::And when something goes wrong, as it did on Triumph, there are limits to how much the Coast Guard can investigate.These are not new issues - they had been raised by members of Congress before the Triumph incident."This horrible situation involving the Carnival Triumph is just the latest example in a long string of serious and troubling incidents involving cruise ships," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who led a committee hearing on cruise safety last year.Last year, after the Costa Concordia ran aground off the coast of Giglio, Italy, Rockefeller held a Commerce Committee hearing to examine deficiencies in the cruise line industry's compliance with federal safety, security, and environmental standards and review industry regulations."As I remarked then, they seem to have two lives: One is at port, where the Coast Guard can monitor their operations; the other is at sea where, it appears once they are beyond three nautical miles from shore, the world is theirs," Rockefeller said in letter he wrote this week to Admiral Robert J. Papp Jr., the commandant of the Coast Guard. "The Carnival Triumph incident only serves to further validate this view."More...

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

Editor's note: Tim Lister produced "Cruise to Disaster," a CNN documentary on the capsizing of the Costa Concordia.(CNN) -- The last few years have seen a rash of engine fires aboard cruise ships -- many of which have led to an almost total loss of electrical power. Passengers on board the Carnival Triumph are but the latest to endure the consequences: a lack of hot food and water, a loss of air conditioning and refrigeration, sanitation systems on the verge of collapse.Beyond these inconveniences are more serious issues: a loss of engine-power to the vessel and the lack of stabilization. If a ship is on the high seas in rough weather there is a greater risk of injury as the vessel pitches and rolls. The situation is further aggravated if tugs are days -- not hours -- away.The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board warned after one such fire that "Hazardous situations that may result from a ship losing propulsive power include vessel grounding, inability to avoid severe weather conditions, and passenger evacuation at sea."

::snipping2::Catalog of engine firesThere has been a spate of engine fires aboard passenger ships around the world in recent years.

2011: In the Indian Ocean, the Costa Allegra suffered an engine fire that left it without power for three days in tropical heat of nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The fire broke out in the electrical generator room. There were no casualties but tugs were needed to tow the ship to Mahe in the Seychelles. As with the Triumph, backed-up toilets and a lack of water were among the problems. Passengers said after disembarking they were fearful of pirates or rough weather in the stranded ship.2011: The Azamara Quest -- in the midst of a Southeast Asian cruise -- was disabled by an engine fire and drifted in southern Philippine waters. Propulsion was restored the next day and the vessel limped into Sandakan in Malaysia.

2011: The Ocean Star Pacific, a Mexican liner with 522 passengers and 226 crew, was stranded by a generator fire a few miles off the Pacific coast of Mexico. The passengers were evacuated.

2011: On September 15 a fire in the engine room of the MS Nordlys killed two of the crew. All 207 passengers were taken off the ship, which was off the coast of Norway.

2010: During the early hours of November 8 an engine room fire on the Carnival Splendor 200 miles off the coast of Mexico disabled the ship. The fire broke out in the aft engine room and took several hours to extinguish. No one was hurt but the cruise director, John Heald, said later that "the smoke was so intense and so thick that, even with breathing apparatus on, the teams could not get close to the source" of the fire.More...

Video at Link

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

FRISCO — Lloyd and Cheryl Bass were questioned inside a bar on the fourth deck of the Carnival Triumph in the final hours of a trip that lasted days longer than it should have."There was an investigator from the NTSB, one from the Coast Guard, and three Carnival executives," Lloyd said. "The NTSB investigator primarily went through and asked the most questions.""They were asking things like, 'Did you read the safety information on the back of your door?'" he recalled. "He asked us what we did when we heard the fire alarm. We looked at each other and said, 'What fire alarm?'""We didn't hear a fire alarm. Some people from lower levels heard and alarm, but we didn't on our level," Lloyd added.The Coast Guard interviewed passengers from 33 cabins along with 21 crew members. Additional crew members will likely be questioned soon. The Coast Guard and NTSB say they'll likely be done with their on-site investigation this week, but the entire probe into what happened will likely take six months.More...

Video at Link

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

New York (CNN) -- Investigators know roughly where the flames erupted in the engine room of the Carnival Triumph, but it could be a year before they learn what caused the fire, which left the massive ship adrift for days in the Gulf of Mexico."We know that the fire originated in front of a generator," Patrick Cuty, a senior marine investigator for the U.S. Coast Guard, told CNN on Sunday."You can see the ignition marks on the wall."There are three generators in the engine room where the fire broke out. Three other generators are in a second engine room that wasn't involved in the fire, Cuty said.The same ship encountered a problem in January with its propulsion system, according to a notice posted on the website of Carnival senior cruise director John Heald."We'll know by end of the next week whether the generator is the same one that was having an issue, an anomaly, in January, according to passengers we interviewed from previous cruises," Cuty said.It could take up to a year to determine the cause of the fire, however, because of the amount of work involved. It includes a painstaking analysis of the ship's records, automated data and wiring.More...

Videos & a photo slide show at above link.

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/coast-guard-triumph-fire-leak-article-1.1267592Coast Guard: Cause of Carnival Triumph’s engine-room fire was a leak in fuel oil lineInvestigation into the disabled ship could take six months, a Coast Guard official said Monday. Bahamian authorities are leading the investigation because the vessel was in international waters at the time the fire broke out and the ship lost power last week.February 19, 2013

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan

So you’ve survived for five days stranded at sea aboard the Carnival Triumph. The ship had no working toilets, sewage dripped from walls, and the whole place smelled “like a hot port-o-potty.” Here’s $500 for your troubles.

Last week, after the Triumph was finally tugged into Alabama and passengers kissed solid ground in relief, Carnival announced that all passengers on the ship—which was hit with a fire in an engine room and left without power in the Gulf of Mexico—would receive some compensation. The offer included a full refund for the cruise and travel expenses, reimbursement for nearly everything they spent on board the ship, a credit good toward a future cruise, plus a check for $500.

To some, the offer didn’t exactly seem generous. “I would have expected more really,” said travel expert George Hobica, who runs the deal-finding site AirfareWatchdog.com. “I think giving them their money back and $500 is pretty cheap.”

Carolyn Spencer Brown, editor of CruiseCritic.com, had basically the same reaction. “What these people went through was worth more than $500,” she said. “It’s a little bit insulting. It’s almost as if Carnival would have been better off offering nothing than to go so low.” ::snipping2::To minimize the public-relations damage, to salvage some sort of goodwill with affected customers, and also to cut off lawsuits before they are filed, travel operators are known to offer compensation during the worst situations. Concordia passengers were offered around $15,000, on top of a refund and travel expenses.

At the time of the offer, a lawyer representing the cruise line told the Associated Press that there were big upsides for passengers who accepted the payment: “The big advantage that they have is an immediate response, no legal expenses, and they can put this whole thing behind them.”

Funny: The cruise lines involved in these disasters also want to avoid legal expenses and put the whole thing behind them.More...

Logged

" Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts." - Daniel Moynihan